Dibutyl Ether and Digestate from a Biogas Plant used in a 3D Plant (PDF)

Technischer Bericht aus dem Jahr 2018 im Fachbereich Ingenieurwissenschaften - Energietechnik, Note: 1, , Sprache: Deutsch, Abstract: Biogas Plants are a well-known technology. Wet substrate is fermented to biogas, a mixture of methane and carbon dioxide. In the most cases biogas is converted with a CHP (combined heat process), in most cases realized with a gas engine, to electricity and heat.

Under heat we understand the so called low temperature warm water heat with a temperature range between T=95°C and T=60°C. At the end of the fermentation process we gain the digestate, a mixture of water, solid celluloses and lignin fibers, metals and solved carbonates, potassium oxides, ammonium and phosphate oxides. All these ingredients are well known and used as fertilizers.

But the problem is, that fertilizing agricultural land, is not done very day, it is done during the cycle of growing plants before and after seeding to increases the nutrients in the soil. The biogas plant produces much more fertilizer as in normal is needed to support the plants and soil.

Vertical farming was an idea raising up about ten years ago. But the idea suffers on the fertilizer costs, the water costs and the housing and cladding costs. In this short report we ask, can vertical farming pushed up to be more productive if we use digestate from a biogas plant, synthetic soil and dimethyl ether as fuel.